C.E. Graves, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

ἀναλαβόντες—ch. 7, 10. πρὸς τῷ Ἡρακλείῳ—on the road from Tegea to Mantinea. Grote says ‘the Lacedaemonian kings appear to have felt a sense of protection in encamping near a temple of Heracles, their heroic progenitor (see Xen. Hell. vii. 1, 31)’.

καταλαβόντες—ch. 4, 15. The χωρίον ἐρυμνόν is said by Curtius to be the southern point of Alesium, a position of importance to Mantinea.

σφᾶς—see note on iv. 36, 1, ἄλλως ἔφη πονεῖν σφᾶς. κακὸν κακῷ ἰᾶσθαι—Classen compares Hdt. iii. 53, μἡ τῷ κακῷ τὸ κακὸν ἰῶ: Soph. Aj. 362, μὴ κακὸν κακῷ διδοὺς ἄκος πλέον τὸ πῆμα τῆς ἄτης τίθει: Plat. Protag. 340 D, ἰώμεν<*>ς μεῖζον τὸ νόσημα ποιῶ.

δηλῶν—‘meauing that his present ill-timed forwardness was intended to retrieve the discredit incurred by his withdrawal from Argos’. δηλῶν here has the regular participial construction. For the infiuitive see iv. 38, 1, δηλοῦντες προσίεσθαι.

ἐπαιτίου—‘culpable’; more commonly used of persons who deserve or incur blame. ἀνάληψιν—lit. ‘taking back’ i.e. retrieval. The word only occurs here in Thucydides. The verb is sometimes used in this sense, e.g. Soph. Phil. 1249, τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἀναλαβεῖν πειράσομαι.

βουλομένην—agreeing with ἀνάληψιν: βούλομαι in this sense of ‘meaning’ or ‘professing to be’ is common in Plato and Aristotle; e.g. Rep. 595 c, οὐδἑ ξυννοῶ τί βούλεται εἶναι. ἐθέλω is similarly used. τοῦτο φρονεῖ, ch. 85. 6, is somewhat similar. Here Classen and Stahl read βουλόμενον, referring to Agis, the subject of διανοεῖται. The position of the word seems rather against the alteration.

εἴτε καὶ...εἴτε καί—so vi. 60, 2, εἴτε ἄρα καὶ τὰ ὄντα μηνῦσαι εἴτε καὶ οὐ: so ὤσπερ καὶ οὕτω καί and the like. εἴτε καί—‘or because he himself changed his decision’; δόξαν is accusative absolute, as in viii. 79, 1: viii. 93, 1. Here it is personally constructed, with ἄλλο, which is rare without ὡς or ὠσπερ: see note on κυρωθἑν δ̓ οὐδέν, iv. 125, 1; and Goodwin § 854. The words ἢ κατὰ τὸ αὐτό seem clumsy and unnecessary, but this is no proof that they are not genuine, and they are found in all the manuscripts. Stahl omits ἤ and refers κατὰ τὸ αὐτό to the same circumstance striking Agis and the veteran. ἢ καὶ τὸ αὐτό is another suggestion; while Dobree would omit the words altogether.

ἐξαίφνης—by some editors taken with δόξαν, by others with ἀπῆγε: the latter way seems to give a more forcible sense. It was the sudden change of tactics which surprised the Argives (line 23). κατὰ τάχος denotes the rapidity of the retreat.

πρὸς τὴν Τεγεᾶτιν—i.e. at the border.—τὸ ὕδωρ—the plain of Mantinea, which was high level ground enclosed by mountains, had no outlet but by subterranean channels, such as are not uncommon in a lime-stone country. It is fully described in Arnold's interesting note.

ἐξέτρεπεν—the imperfect here denotes the beginning of the operation, a little below its continuance.

τὰ πολλά—‘mostly’. This leaves βλάπτοντος without an object: Poppo therefore suggests omitting τὰ, when πολλὰ βλάπτοντος would mean ‘doing great damage’. With πολεμοῦσιν we might expect ἀεί or some such phrase.

τοὺς ἀπό—with καταβιβάσαι: he wished to draw from the hill those who were on it; ch. 34, 1. βοηθοῦντας ἐπί— predicate, ‘to (stop) the turning of the water’. The participle is not equivalent to the future, but is used as in iv. 25, 9, κατέβαινον βοηθοῦντες ἐπὶ τοὺς Μεσσηνίους. The descent from the hill would be in itself the beginning of the βοήθεια.

τοὐς Ἀργε<*>ους κ.τ.λ.—modern editors are disposed to omit these words as a mere explanatory gloss. Poppo however on i. 144, 2, gives several instances of similar apposition. They can scarcely be all interpolations, and are more probably due to the writer's mannerism; see note on iv. 114, 4. τὴν μάχην=the impending engagement: so iii. 105, 4.

μείνας—the aorist gives an ‘end-view’ (Clyde). Here, in combination with the imperfect, it either means ‘after halting’; or it regards the day's operations as ended, in which case ἐξέτρεπεν=‘liad been diverting’.

καταπλαγέντες—‘astounded’. ἐξ ὀλίγου—usually of time, as in ch. 64, 20: ch. 72, 1. If this be the meaning here, αἰφνιδίῳ, which is absent from one manuscript, should be omitted as an explanatory gloss. ἐξ ὀλίγου however is used of space ii. 91, 3, πρὸς τὴν ἐξ ὀλίγου ἀντεξόρμησιν, and may be so understood here. It will then correspond to μέχρι μὲν λίθου κ.τ.λ. line 5, while αἰφνιδίῳ answers to ἐξαίφνης and κατὰ τάχος in line 12.

αὐτῶν—the position of this word between τῇ and ἀναχωρήσει seems due to the intervening words; so iv. 55, 3, παρὰ τὴν ὑπάρχουσαν σφῶν ἰδέαν: see note on ch. 10, 48.

οὐκ εἶχον ὅ τι εἰκάσωσιν—so ii. 52, 3, οὐκ ἔχοντες ὅ τι γένωνται. The deliberative subjunctive after a past tense, is a direct and vivid form of expression. εἶτα (without δέ) answers to τὸ μὲν πρῶτον. Krüger suggested ἔπειτα as more in accordauce with Thucydidean usage, e.g. viii. 67, 2.

ἐπειδή—note the tenses and the order of the words: ἀναχωροῦντες affects the whole sentence, though agreeing with ἐκεῖνοι only. ‘Then, when the retreat went on, and the Spartans disappeared, while they found themselves standing still and no pursuit attempted’.

ἀπέκρυψαν—‘disappeared’, apparently a neuter usage, ἑαυτούς being understood. This is the scholiast's explanation, and it is supported by Hes. F<*>. 44, ἀποκρύπτουσι Πελειάδες, quoted by Lid. and Scott. This view is simpler than to understand αὐτούς or Ἀργείους, on the analogy of the nautical use found Plat. Protag. 338 A, ἀποκρύψαντα γῆν ‘losing sight of land’: Luc. Ver. Hist. 2. 38, ἀπεκρύψαμεν αὐτούς: Verg. Aen. iii. 291, Phaeacum abscondimus arces. Besides, the point is that the Argives lost sight of the Spartans, not that the Spartans lost sight of the Argives.

σφεῖς—i.e. αὐτοί: rarely used, as Poppo notes, except in oratio obliqua, or with ὅτι in mixed constructions like liue 31. Here indeed this clause, like the two which conclude the sentence, seems to represent in a sort of half-direct way the actual thoughts or words of the troops.

ἐν αἰτίᾳ εἶχον—ch. 60, 12 etc. Here the ground of blame follows with an accusative and aorist infinitive; cf. vii. 81, 1, ἐν αἰτίᾳ τὸν Γύλιππον εἶχον. ἀφεῖναι. Then the construction alters to ὄτι with the indicative, giving to some extent, as Classen points out, the effect of direct speech. The converse change from ὅτι to the infinitive is much more common: see ch. 61, 12.

τό τε πρότερον—see ch. 60. The sense is ‘as formerly ...so now’: see note on ch. 43, 15. For καλῶς cf. ch. 36, 21. so ἐν καλῷ ch. 59, 21 etc.

ὅτι—according to Kruger, ‘because’; or else ‘that’; depending on ‘they complained’. In either case the irregular transition to the present indicative has a striking and dramatic effect. ἀποδιδράσκοντας—a contemptuous word. καθ̓ ἡσυχίαν—ironical, ‘quietly and comfortably’.